Excerpted from NIH Notice: NOT-OD-10-123
Beginning with due dates on or after January 25, 2011, NIH, AHRQ, and NIOSH will eliminate the error correction window from the application submission process. The agencies have made this decision after carefully evaluating the comments received from the public in response to the RFI (request for information) released on March 12, 2010. eliminating the error correction window will ensure consistent and fair deadlines for all applicants and better align these agencies’ application submission processes with the submission processes of other federal agencies.
The error correction window originally was implemented in December 2005 as a temporary measure to facilitate the transition from paper to electronic submission of grant applications. The window allowed applicants an opportunity after the deadline to correct missing or incorrect aspects of their applications, identified by NIH system-generated errors and warnings displayed to the applicant after submission.
Beginning on January 25, 2011, all applications submitted after 5pm local time of the applicant organization on the due date will be subject to the NIH late policy and may not be accepted for review. In addition, any post-submission application materials will be subject to the new policy detailed in the NIH guide notice.
NOT-OD-10-115
Please note that NIH will continue to make accommodations for Federal System issues that threaten or prevent on-time submission of an individual application, if appropriately documented and verified by NIH support staff. Moreover, NIH will still determine and implement contingency plans on an as-needed basis for widespread system issues and natural disasters. the agencies remain committed to assisting all grant applicants through the electronic submission process. To this end, NIH conducts periodic reviews of its system validations and has made many changes over the years to relax enforcement of business rules that may not be necessary to perform a thorough scientific review of each application. NIH will continue to reevaluate its validations to determine the necessity of each.
The elimination of the error correction window does not affect the two-business-day application viewing window (i.e. the time an applicant has to view the electronic application image in eRA Commons upon NIH’s receipt of an error-free application). Applicants will still be able to view their application and reject and submit a corrected application prior to the submission deadline. NIH, AHRQ, and NIOSH encourage applicants to submit in advance of the due date to take advantage of the opportunity to correct errors and warnings and to review the application in the eRA Commons before the deadline.
The Office of Sponsored Programs is looking at the best way to manage this change and will provide further information in the near future.
For the full text of this announcement, please see here